jazeera.com.

>> that's in the eastern region, where several attacks were reported. more than 300 people were known to have died but activists say they were killed. the u.s. vice president though says it is clear who is responsible. >> the president believes and i believe, that those who used chemical weapons against defenseless, member, women, and children, should and must be held accountable. >> the british prime minister's

office has also issue add statement saying there is no doubt that forces used chemical weapons. live from london, where more deliberations are taking place. >> yes, that's right. the brightish prime minister today.

an emergency session of the houses of publics. the only opinion poll that has come out today show as strong

majority here in the united kingdom, being very skeptical about military action. but to a certain extent, you would say maybe, or perhaps this is what david cameron would say. maybe it needs to catch one the facts on the ground, and he and his government need to be given a chance to convince that skeptical british public. >> but they goal that insist is not to get rid of the president, but to send him a message. it is not our policy to respond with regime change.

it says it would most likely involve cruise missles. a limited strike is unlikely to change the direction or of the war. i think that target strikes are more powerful in terms of the signaling. that they achieve. and it's sending a very strong message. >> many believe the president left himself little choice but to respond, this was one year ago. >> a red line for sus we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around.

then what happens. who replaces that. what happens to the otherwise -- is there a blood bath, does al quaida and its affiliates gain the upper hand. i think the idea is to try to calibrate the militarya. enough to send a message, but not so much as to change momentum on the ground. and if there's somebody who knows how to do that, i have never met that person. >> . >> it proves the a said government is responsible for the attack. trying to make the argument that the world needs to do something but only to a point. >> al jazeera washington. >> told its citizens to leave syria and organized a plane to fly them to moscow. russia pulled out of its defense

personnel in june. peter sharp has more. >> a pretty colorful reaction from the country's deputy prime minister who is a fierce russian nationalist. he said the west behavior was like a monkey with a hand grenade. the country's foreign minister chose his word as little more carefully, he said that even a targeted and limited strike against syria would violate international laws and he pointed out that western intervention in iraq, and in afghanistan didn't work, and it certainly wouldn't work in syria. and he said if you think that by the west bombing syria's military infrastructure and then leaving the battlefield for the rebels to win would solve everything, he said that is simply an illusion. he maintains and the government maintains despite all increasing evidence, that the chemical attacks were carried out by the rebels. why? well, to drag america and britain and france into the war,

and also quite importantly, to derail any chance of these geneva 2 peace talks. >> the flooded city of in china has been strengthened its dikes to prevent more damage. city 30s have also been building new pairiers along roads to ensure the safety of its main residential areas. much of tonjef has been under water. 33,000 people have been relocated. he sent us this update. >> i'm standing at the moment on a secondary embankment, some several hundreds meters away from where the usual bank is. you can see emergency crews have had to reenforce this area, and what they are doing now, is that some of the wattser making its way to the other side of this bank, not because it is overtopping it but because it has been leaking underneath,

where we are now, we have come here by boat and a lot of sandbags are being brought here, so just dropping them over the side, trying to plug any leaks. one of the roads we were driving along just simply ended. about 100-kilometers further downstream from here, there's a very serious situation where one of these dams was breeched. a few meter at first, and then the pressure simply taking more and more of it away, until there was a 400-meter gap. and that has been the most serious single incident. this is a sparsely populated province. about 200,000 people here in the city of tangen. but still it is a very serious operation they have underway. a few days ago about 5,000 troops we hear today that has tripled to about 15,000, so they are doing everything they can to try to stem this rising water. >> and flooding in south sudan

has forced them from their homes. and we will look at columbia's second largest group freed a geologist after seven months of captivity. lap

>> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america, social community, on t.v. and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload, and interact. >> every night, share undiscovered stories. >> the stream, next on al jazeera america. ♪[music] welcome back. the top stories u.n. inspectors have arrived at the scene of an alleged chemical attack in syria. more than 300 people are known to have died but activist say several hundred more were killed.

the syrian government denies accusations that it was involved. both the u.s. and the u.k. says there is no doubt that they used chemical wells. it has been strengthening its dikes. they have been building new barriers to ensure the safety of the main residential areas. they have been under batter since flooding began on sunday. back to our ton story. the conflict in syria. a family that lost 11 people in the suspected chemical attack has spoken out against military action. the victims were palestinian refugees. their relatives say violence is not the answer. many the hours of last week suspected attack, hansa poured over video online, and on tv, her uncle, his children, and grandchildren, all live there,

in the futa suburb where the attack happened. she thought she saw him among the victims. >> i was watching tv with my mother, and i was telling her he looks just like my uncle. when my husband came back from friday prayers i told him let's call them. i had a bad feeling something happened. my cousin answer sod we said way's the latest, he said we have bad news. >> her cousin and her uncle said the whole family were dead, 11 relatives including six children. her brother was among them. >> i have seen the mass grave on t.v., when i saw it i was out of my mind, when they said the scenes, i thought to myself i have lost my brother, he lived there. i was out of my mind, the killing of a small child is a crime, it is a crime. >> you might expect the relatives to be calling for some sort of retaliation on those

that dropped these weapons to be supportive of a strike, but they say this wouldn't stop the war, and they think it would cause even more suffering on the innocent civilians. >> of course, they shouldn't. at the end of the day it is not the regime that is going to lose, it is the people. they will be casualties, syria will be in ruins. >> reconciliation is good, if they reconcile and agree to put theirnd has together and be one. >> when she last spoke to her uncle and asked why he didn't leave, he said i can't leave, if i leave this place i will lose it. lit be like losing palestine all over again. but instead, he and his whole family lost their lives. >> some analysis of what those u.n. inspectors may be able to achieve. c.e. o. of secure bio, a biological consultancy firm. he joins me life, it does seem that the u.s. isn't terribly

keep on these inspectors. over the weekend, we have administration officials saying there's no point in these expectations, is there a point after the elapsed time in. >> well, i think there is. we are now a week after the event, there should still be remanence of whatever chemical weapon was used on the ground, in the debris, and hopefully in the delivery means which they should be able to look at it. so -- i think it is crucial, the evidence we have seen thus far, all the videos and everything else is very compelling and very much points toward as chemical attack. however, to make decisions to conduct major strikes on the chemical facilities and all the rest which is being suggested on the basis of videos and others seems to me a little bit extreme. so the evidence that the u.n. inspectors will gain, and vice president biden last night was saying the americans had

additional evidence as well, i think the absolutely crucial. before these very major decisions are made, and potential attacks into the country. >> now the u.n. mandate is not to assign blame for any attack, but could they establish who was responsible from the evidence that they will see at the site? >> well, that is possible. and with that being there on the ground, and looking at exactly what they are doing. i couldn't judge from here, however, they will see the evidence, and that's spirally possible. and when looks rat other evidence that is being presented and presumably the u.s., and u. k. and others have. that would be possible, i'm not entirely sure the complete makeup of the team, whether they have military experts like myself, who can piece together the evidence. and give a definitive answer, but yeah, in theory the evidence potentially is there for them to work out exactly what was used,

but also give a very strong indication of who perpetrated this. >> you mentioned vice president biden they did have evidence, the white house spokesperson was sort of backing away from presenting that evidence to us any time soon. but what sort of evidence could they have without being on the site? is there some smoking gun in some slam dunk bit of evidence that the americans could have without having inspected the site itself. >> well, potentially, there has been talk on social media and others and we must page it's authenticity from that. but talk about nsa, and others, presumably picking up communications intercepted. that's been widely reported. that would be compelling evidence in my mind, we know that casualties from previous chemical weapons events have found them -- their way back to

u.k., u.s., and other places. and have been analyzed and come up traces of seran and others. it is (inaudible) through communications intelligence, the u.s. has more -- presumably they are going to share in some form before they make any demonstrative moves into syria. >> we shall see. thank you very much. >> . >> at least 40 people have been killed in iraq after a series of bomb attacks. more than 150 people have been targeted. >> six drivers of trucks applying nato forces have been killed in a taliban rocket attack in the western afghan province. zero truck40 trucks have been t. the explosion took place the

bomb was detonated when a nato convoy was passing by. more than 18,000 people are homeless after flooding in south sudan's upper nile state. the flood waters have also destroyed crops in low lying areas. anna cavell reports. >> floodwaters have been rising in the upper nile state for the past two weeks. in the county of muwit, almost 20,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. they have taken shelter in churches, schools and other public places. many people have lost everything, with women and children the worst effected. >> we came here because of the floods, the water destroyed our home so we came to dry ground. we lost all our property and everything. we need food and shelter. >> accord tock aid organizations the health situation is getting worse. and the conditions in the air are perfect for the spread of

malaria, and other water born diseases. >> we are doing some things. we take them medicine, in our observations and discussions that the effects have been minimized and especially knowing that these are low lying areas, knowing that every rainy season this will happen. knowing that the effects will still be the same. >> not only homes but also crops have been destroyed. putting the food supply of this community at risk. >> flooding is typical at this time of year, and it can have some devastating effects on already vulnerable populations. the aid organizations are offering assistance, but there are concerns if there is many rain the situation can become even worse. >> the white house is again called on north korea to pardon and imprison an american missionary and allow him to return to the united states.

the u.s. a human rights envoy to negotiate his release. his family says he is seriously ill in the hospital. more from the south korean captain in seoul. >> robert king is due to arrive on friday, and it will not be his first visit to north korea. his last visit was in may 2011, to assess the food situation in north korea, acorn that relies heavily on food aid. but he managed to secure the release of eddie june, a missionary who had been held in north korea for six months for carried -- for allegedly carrying out missionary work. now, at that time, north korea said it was released june on humanitarian grounds. kings visit is to release kenneth bay on humanitarian grounds. he had been sentenced to hard labor, but was recently admitted to hospital, including chronic

diabeteses and liver problems. now in kings last visit did not result in resumpsion of food aid to north korea, nor did it result in north korea returning to six parties talks and the obama administration has said that kings visit is limited to securing kenneth bay's release. be uh this invitation can be seen as north korea's latest charm offensive, and it follows north korea's agreement to hold family reunions between north and korean south korean families as well as aagreing to resumpsion of communities in industrial park. >> emergency crews are still trying to extinguish california's record breaking wild fire near a popular national park. nearly 4,000 firefighters are making progress. they have contained it by 20% in the last few hours. two fire has been burning for 11 days and has reach add major water reservoir. columbia's second largest rebel group has freed a canadian

geologist after the government demanded his release for peace talks to begin. the e.l.n. had been holding him for seven months. pro after seven months in the jungle, canadian geologist buzz released by columbia second largest rebel group, the e.l.n., in the north of the country. he was captured last january while working for a toronto base mining company that operated in the region. >> the columbian government had demanded his release as a condition for starting peace talks with the group. similar is to the ones judged way with the country's largest group in cuba. >> it opens the door for negotiations between the government and the electionn. it is a condition that was impose bed i the government, but it is also something symbolic for the public. then we can start talking. >> in a statement, the e.l.n.

commander nicholas rodriguez, said he considered the release a sign of peace. >> we are freeing the canadian geologist, who was kept captainist by organizations since january. we are turning him over in a humanitarian act. >> inspired by the cuban revolution, the eln was born in the 1960's to fight against poverty and injustice. it has battled the government for decades attacking oil pipeline and foreign corporations. previous attempts at peace have failed. a former e.l.m. leader says this time, it will be different. >> i have no doubts because the interests coincide with the country's interests. which is bringing columbia's internal conflict to an end. the struggle plays role in columbia, but it is trying to overcome that role, and that's something that rebel groups and society will have to do

together. >> eventual peace negotiations will be held outside of columbia, and in parallel with peace talks in havana. most people bringing the eln is vital if there's to be a peace deal and one that lasts. >> scientists in new zealand have confirmed that bacteria found in suspect weigh protein products made by the dairy giant fonterra did not contain any things related to botulism. >> at least seven people have died and more than 20 are still missing after a building collapsed in western india. the four story building in the state contained 14 apartments. some residents accused the government of not following up on complaints that the apartment block structure had become weak.

another housing block nearby also collapsed but it had been evacuated. >> the indian currency has slumped to its lowest level against the dollar. the rupi has hit a record low. it's fallen by 19% so far this year, and is the worst performer among major asian currencies. but not everyone is complaining. who is benefiting from the depreciating rupi. >> . >> the apparel business is booming. thanks to the diving value of the indian rupi. she exports to the u.s., and is earning much more for her garments because of the 15% slide in the value of the rupi against the dollar since may. >> i have never seen it this low. but it's for the ben official stars being an ex-porter is concerned. >> but she doesn't plan to investigation her profit in

india, no, it is getting tough tore do the business. so the infrastructure that is being provided is not enough. the electricity, because you are running everything on generators instead of regular power, that needs to be done for the water, for the fact that you are taking three hours each way to working. >> despite her increase in profit, she wants to invest overseas. it isn't just indian business that is are concerned about the working environment here. despite efforts by the government to encouraging foreign investors, companies are still staying away. the government admits it needs to reform its economic policies. >> which is used to preach. he doesn't soon behave like a clerk in a government office. the impression the prime minister gives. >> with elections just eight months away, the government desperately needs to win back the confidence of businesses and

consumers. they pull prospects may depend on it. al jazeera, new delhi. >> and just a quick reminder you can keep up to date with all the news on our website, the address al jazeera.com.